Striper Fishing 2009 on the Coast of Maine

Fishing this past summer was up and down. We had great days and slow days. According to Barry Gibson on the Shark 6, "Only about 25% of the stripers that migrated north to Maine in 2006 and 2007 made it up here again this year."(Maine Sportsman, October) Barry offers this explanation,"Sand Eels... mushroomed on Stellwagen Bank and adjacent areas, providing a perfect forage for stripers... There was basically a solid wall of sand eels in the path of stripers migrating north, so the bass just stopped there."

Others have suggested the cold water and rain at the beginning of the summer as the reason for this year's decline in numbers. From stories I have heard about people fishing on Stellwagen and other places outside I am more inclined to believe Barry's explanation. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Striper fishing is illegal in places like Stellwagen because it is outside the 3 mile federal limit.

Here is another thing to consider when thinking about the numbers Barry is talking about. The Striper fishing in Southern Maine was excellent in many places for much of the summer. As a result, when you are talking about 25% of the previous years catch you know that the fishing in Northern Maine may have been even worse.

In the end, I am not ready to make any final guesses about why the fishing has been on the decline. 10 years ago the fishing was much better. We had tons of schoolies and fish could often be located by diving birds. The absence of schoolies is the most distrubing piece for charterboat captain. We are on the northern edge of the Striper migration pattern and I have heard NMFS officials say that its always the edges of a migration pattern that get hit first when there is a change. Hopefully, El Nino can reverse this pattern. 11 years ago we had an El Nino and terrific fishing followed. Also, the fishing 11 years ago began the third week in May because water temps had warmed quickly with the warmer temps. We shall see.

Columbus Day Weekend

Well, I can honestly report that I found no Macs between Burnt Island and Mouse Island today. Got out of work and my family was still in Portland so I decided to run the boat. Juju and I cruised around for a few minutes which felt great. Pretty chilly but still worth it.

I have not been Striper fishing in almost two weeks now. I have no reports from any captains but I would not be surprised to find that there are still some fish around. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and blowy so I don't want to bother but I would not mind going Sunday. We shall see.